Demoncratic Republic of Congo’s Youssouf Mulumbu (R) fights for the ball during the 2015 Africa Cup of Nations qualifying football match against Ivory Coast in Abidjan on October 15, 2014
EBEBIYIN, Equatorial Guinea, January 23 – DR Congo captain Youssouf Mulumbu is waiting to discover the extent of the groin injury that forced him off in Thursday’s 0-0 Africa Cup of Nations draw with Cape Verde.
“I had pain in a groin. We will need to do tests to see how serious it is. I really felt pain,” said the West Bromwich Albion midfielder, who came off in the first half of the Group B game in Ebebiyin.
The result left both sides’ hopes of reaching the last eight in the balance ahead of the final round of games on Monday.
“The most important thing was the match, and we didn’t win, so I am a little bit unhappy. We have to either win our last match or we go home,” added Mulumbu, whose side face group leaders Tunisia last.
“It will be tough because Tunisia play well. We need to show that we want to win, because we didn’t show anything today. It was as if we were afraid. We were the better team but we didn’t believe it. I know we can win. We deserve to get out of the group.”
Coach Florent Ibenge added: “Against Tunisia we have no alternative but to win. We have played two matches in which we felt we had to win but we haven’t been able to.”
Like Congo, Cape Verde have now drawn both of their matches, although their Portuguese coach Rui Aguas insisted his side deserved to win.
“The draw is not a fair result. It was a bit like a repeat of the Tunisia match,” he said.
“I can’t criticise my players for the way they have played in these two matches. We are confident that the third match will be different and that we will get through to the quarter-finals.”
Cape Verde play Zambia in their final group game.
